MedBiquitous Europe and its Role in Improving Technology Standards for Medical and Healthcare Education

Recent technological developments concerning Web 2.0 have enabled the use of three-dimensional virtual platforms for educational purposes. In this paper, focus is placed on the modifi cation of an OpenSimulator based 3D environment for its reuse in a different fi eld of medical education; developments are presented alongside the associated effort to reconstruct and repurpose this environment so as to fi t medical specialties of different clinical skills. The aim of this study was to present repurposing aspects of a learning environment modifi cation and adaption to the needs of various medical specialties, in an attempt to reuse – and therefore share – learning content between different medical areas. Initially, a 3-Dimensional environment was created using the OpenSim platform for use in cardiology. Then, the virtual environment was modifi ed so as to be oriented to the needs of psychiatry. The reconstruction of the educational environment and context and the reformation of the educational clinical scenario offer the possibility of reusability of this content which can be tailored to the needs of each medical fi eld. * Corresponding author; Address: Lab of Medical Informatics, P.O. Box 323, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki Greece, tel:+302310999310, fax:+302310999263, email: [email protected] BIO-ALGORITHMS AND MED-SYSTEMS JOURNAL EDITED BY MEDICAL COLLEGE – JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY Vol. 6, No. 11, 2010, p. 9–13